Jefferson Adams is a freelance writer living in San Francisco. His poems, essays and photographs have appeared in Antioch Review, Blue Mesa Review, CALIBAN, Hayden's Ferry Review, Huffington Post, the Mississippi Review, and Slate among others.

He is a member of both the National Writers Union, the International Federation of Journalists, and covers San Francisco Health News for Examiner.com.

The team performed a double-blind cross-over trial of 37 subjects (aged 24−61 y, 6 men) with NCGS and irritable bowel syndrome (based on Rome III criteria), but not celiac disease.

They assigned study participants randomly to groups given a 2-week diet of reduced FODMAPs, and were then placed on high-gluten (16 g gluten/d), low-gluten (2 g gluten/d and 14 g whey protein/d), or control (16 g whey protein/d) diets for 1 week, followed by a washout period of at least 2 weeks.

The researchers then evaluated serum and fecal markers of intestinal inflammation/injury and immune activation, and indices of fatigue.

The team then crossed twenty-two participants over to groups receiving gluten (16 g/d), whey (16 g/d), or control (no additional protein) diets for 3 days, using visual analogue scales to evaluate symptoms.

They found that gastrointestinal symptoms consistently and significantly improved for all patients during reduced FODMAP intake, but significantly worsened to a similar degree when their diets included gluten or whey protein.

The team saw gluten-specific effects in just 8% of study subjects. They saw no diet-specific changes in any biomarker. During the 3-day re-challenge, participants’ symptoms increased by similar levels among groups. Gluten-specific gastrointestinal effects were not reproduced. An order effect was observed.

A placebo-controlled, cross-over re-challenge study showed no evidence of specific or dose-dependent effects of gluten in patients with NCGS placed diets low in FODMAPs.